1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electronic countermeasures simulation, and more particularly to an interactive simulator for training a pilot using on-board electronics for simulating in-flight threats and countermeasure responses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Military aircraft operating under hostile conditions encounter enemy action intended to destroy the aircraft. Such action may be from ground based weapons, such as anti-aircraft fire, ground-to-air missiles or fighter aircraft carrying air-to-air missiles. To combat enemy tactics, the attacked aircraft may resort to electronic countermeasures, such as jamming tracking radar and missile emissions, deceptive measures such as flares to deflect infra-red missiles or chaff to confuse radar, and evasive maneuvers.
The effectiveness of an aircrafts' threat warning and countermeasures system depends not only on the quality of the system, but on the ability of the pilot to operate it effectively, at present, to train pilots in the use of onboard countermeasures equipment, enemy threats are simulated using ground-based emitters over which the trainee-pilot flies to simulate flying over enemy threats. Such physical simulator embodiments are expensive to build and maintain, training is limited to a few locations where facilities are based, and their emissions can be monitored to provide an enemy with information as to the extent of our knowledge base of enemy threat systems.
Previous attempts to provide realistic in-flight threat warning and countermeasures training have met with limited success in that extensive modifications to aircraft electronics were required and the threats were not interactive; that is, they did not automatically reflect operator actions or move realistically as a real threat would, and imposed a substantial workload on the trainer. Since the training scenario had to be run manually, it frequently resulted in a poor training outcome due to nausea, vertigo and fatigue induced in the trainer.
The present invention utilizes an existing control and display system and countermeasures integration terminal and is activated by predetermined scenarios programmed via software which may be modified by the operator. The countermeasures integration terminal recovers data from and provides commands to the countermeasures receiver and active countermeasures devices and provides an integrated display showing the selected targets and the status thereof in symbolic form. The display scenario may be superimposed on a normal cockpit instrument display if desired. The scenario is stored within a digital memory embedded within the terminal. Once initiated, a scenario is fully automatic, leaving the pilot-trainee free to concentrate on flying and the instructor free to teach the pilot how to defeat threats as they appear. A library of scenarios permits multiple threats to be displayed if desired. The interactive operation reflects aircraft maneuvers and pilot countermeasures in the display, while providing fail-safe operation by disabling the simulator in the event a real threat is encountered during flight training.